Crazy Little Thing Called Love The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke
Fender Telecaster Electric Guitar
1: According to Peter Jones (Mercury's driver), Freddie was fond of Pink Floyd and often listened to their music while he was in the car. 2: Freddie's words come from a BBC One interview conducted by Tom Browne, on 24th December 1977, available in audio format. |
A Gradual Progression
Here you can see a short commentary on Freddie's road to the rhapsody, taking one specific song from each album up to 'Sheer Heart Attack'. I'm aware that most people would've chosen other tracks to make the comparison (e.g. Black Queen, My Fairy King, even Brian's Prophet's Song), but that's partly the idea: to realise that Mercury's path included these gems as well. These four numbers (all written solely by Freddie) have several common features, such as the fact they've all got introduction, two verses, two choruses, a middle-eight (although in Bo Rhap it's a thirty-second interlude) followed by a guitar-led section and then a break. So, as an architect, Mercury had (consciously or not) quite a clear image of what he wanted and how he wanted it. Freddie's foremost inspiration for this kind of forms probably came from The Beatles' classic A Day in the Life. Note that epics usually take one of the following formulas (albeit hardly-ever generically): - One-Bridge Derived: The song starts off normally, but instead of a middle-eight there's a long (sometimes acyclic) interlude, after which it all comes back to normal. That's the easiest way to organise an epic, and it's applied in A Day in the Life, The Prophet's Song, In Agadda da Vida, The Golden Boy, Won't Get Fooled Again, Innuendo and Father to Son. - Dynamic Cycles: The piece's got three or four sections, which go alternated, sometimes with instrumental solos in order not to be too repetitive. Classic examples of this one are November Rain, White Queen, Estranged and Love Song (Tesla). - Multi-Movement Suite: Acyclic. It's like putting several songs together as some sort of a medley. Most of the time they do include a reference to an earlier theme, for instance, in Stairway to Heaven, Paranoid Android and Jesus of Suburbia. Bohemian Rhapsody has elements from all the three approaches, and, surprisingly enough, there's no coda (as opposed to March of the Black Queen or Somebody to Love), and ends on a perfect cadence. Freddie's most similar efforts in that respect (and many others, btw) were In the Lap of the Gods and The Millionaire Waltz, although both cases are slightly less complex. Formal freedom is almost as old as music itself, and probably existed in rock since its origins. But it's hard to find a case of mainstream acts applying it before 'Pet Sounds' (Beach Boys). That album, btw, was very influential to Freddie, both in terms of creativity (forms, modulations, etc) and performance (particularly in the vocal department). In 1967 Pink Floyd released their debut album, and The Beatles closed 'Sgt Pepper' with A Day in the Life. Again, both were largely influential for Mercury (1), and by the end of the decade several new acts were, in one way or another, doing long epics: Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Yes, The Who... Freddie and Brian got caught into the trend too, as can be seen in some of the material they penned in their respective bands, and what they contributed to Queen in the early days. At first, the formula used (more noticeable in those songs of May's) was to have the "normal" piece split in halves (although such halves would rarely be equal in length) and place a long, blues-rooted semi-improvised guitar solo in the middle. That was the case with Brian's Son and Daughter and Doin' All Right as well as Freddie's Jesus and Liar, both of which would be slightly shorter by the time they were recorded. While Brian kept using that model in his sporadic long numbers (Father to Son, Now I'm Here live, Prophet's Song adding a vocal canon before the guitar solo), Freddie soon expanded beyond blues and mastered other approaches. His songs would have dramatic and abrupt changes, as opposed to May's more gradual and sequential development. Compare, for instance, Doin' All Right with Liar: the former has two verses and goes to the interlude, which is repeating the same riff over and over again (with some variants) on a crescendo (first slow acoustic guitars, then faster ones with bass joining, and then drums kick in and electric guitars enter, and the tempo increases again); the latter has a very long intro after which it all dies down to acoustic guitar, organ and lead vocal, only to be heavy again as drums set another semi-abrupt change of mood. Or let's see how's Prophet's Song compared to Bo Rhap: Brian's masterpiece starts off very softly (with atmospheric sounds, koto and acoustic guitar), then slowly grows (adding an electric guitar and a voice, then more voices) and then gets heavy. Arrangement gets busier each time except for the beginning of the a capella section, yet it's always up-tempo until the very end of the song, where it all fades out to, again, koto and acoustic guitar. Bo Rhap has some aspects of that crescendo idea, yet it's notably crazier in terms of changes: compare "will you do the fandango" with "thunderbolt and lightning" (both in terms of volume, voices and instruments), the guitar fanfare with the immediately following reprise, etc. It doesn't mean Freddie was a "better" songwriter than Brian or vice-versa, but it's a way to demonstrate the way each one composed was rather different and distinctive from each other. Both approaches require creativity, dedication and a wonderful performance in order to work. This is one of Fred's songs which were most obviously influenced by Led Zeppelin in terms of form and general arrangement. Amongst the details Bo Rhap could've inherited from this one we can find: - Subtle recycling of motifs (although in Bo Rhap that's much more developed). - Second chorus is a variant, followed by a guitar section and then the interlude starts. - There's a triumphant ending with perfect cadence, which is quite unusual for Freddie. - Liar is directed to "father/sire" and "mamma", Bohemian Rhapsody to "mamma". - References to religion. - Abrupt changes in mood and arrangement. - Contrasting tempos. - Regretful lyrics. An early feature of Mercury's songwriting was fairy-tale imagery: My Fairy King, The Fairy Feller's Masterstroke, Ogre Battle, The March of the Black Queen, Seven Seas of Rhye, In the Lap of the Gods. Lily of the Valley would be a turning point, combining the same approach with a more romantic one. From then on most of his numbers would be about love: Love of My Life, You Take My Breath Away, Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy, Somebody to Love, Get Down Make Love, Jealousy, Play the Game, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, It's a Hard Life, My Love Is Dangerous, Love Me Like There's No Tomorrow, Mother Love. Ogre Battle was, as Liar, composed at the guitar, resulting in a heavy piece. The core of the song consists of a long riff (played on guitar and bass, with drums providing rhythmic support) which opens the track, separates the cyclic half with the acyclic one and, on a variant, marks the end. Live versions often featured an extended solo with more room for improvisations, and a tempo change. In the studio, the interlude was a programmatic section, with Freddie and Roger screaming (apparently emulating the "ogre battle"). Production played a key role there.
While the first two albums took months to be written and polished, Queen only had two weeks to come up with 'Sheer Heart Attack' material. That allowed Fred not to over-think, and instead use his experience and creativity for worthy pieces of music. And he did: Killer Queen, Lily of the Valley, Leroy Brown, Flick of the Wrist and the two Lap's are, collectively, more complex than Ogre Battle, Masterstroke, Nevermore, Black Queen, Funny and Seven Seas, but at the same time more accessible. Lap of the Gods is one of the last "mythological" songs Freddie wrote, and the only one that in fact combines opera and rock (Bo Rhap alternates them, but there's no actual amalgamation). There's a cross-reference between this one and Bohemian Rhapsody regarding a descending line played simultaneously on bass and left-hand piano (check the image). Freddie commented that "I was beginning to learn a lot on 'Sheer Heart Attack', we were doing a lot of things which was to come on future albums, was to be used on future albums. Songs like that, yes, I suppose. Working out the harmonies and song structure did help on say something like Bo Rhap" (2). It was quite obvious that, in order not to be pigeonholed, Freddie's epics started to fade out from the Queen catalogue after 'A Night at the Opera'. Yet, the few ones that appeared (including his solo career) deserve some comments: - The Millionaire Waltz: Bo Rhap's direct follow-up (and the momentary end of the series). Again there's full intro and an acyclic chain of sections, but this time the two verses are separated: instead of following the first, the second appears near the end of the song. As in Liar and Bo Rhap, there's a full outro with perfect cadence. Note that one of the guitar solos plagiarises, note by note, a Winnie the Pooh tune titled Little Black Rain Cloud. - Somebody to Love: Quite similar in the matter of developing different sections from recurring motifs and progressions. This one has three verses and a crescendo interlude that begins a capella (bass-voice only) and gradually adds more voices and instruments. Full ending again. - The Golden Boy: The structure is AA'BBB'B"B"'A"A"', being in that matter reminiscent of Great King Rat, Ogre Battle and Somebody to Love. The use of variants is very clever. - Innuendo: Freddie's last epic, and a rather clever one in terms of form and motifs. On the surface, it may seem a simpler Day in the Life-esque AABA (Day is actually AA'A'BCDA'B'), but it actually brings a Rhapsody-esque use of recurring themes: the I>II chord change in Freygish mode appears as intro, verse, part of the interlude and part of the flamenco solo. Throughout his career, Freddie seemed to be fond of applying variants between recurring sections. As opposed to Brian, who usually made the arrangement change between them (compare each verse in Fat Bots or each chorus in Show Must Go On), Freddie often maintained the instrumentation but altered chords or structure: - Mad the Swine: First verse is quite different (in phrasing and harmony) to the others. - Liar: First chorus overlaps the second verse, second chorus has a proper ending. - Ogre Battle: Third time the riff is done, it ends on minor chord instead of major. - Killer Queen: First time the chorus features both "anytime" and "wanna try", second time it ends on "anytime" and the guitar solo starts; third time "wanna try" is done differently (descending instead of ascending). - All God's People: Verse comes in two variants (one lasting seven bars, the other six), as well as lift (3 1/2 and 3 respectively). Both bridge variants last eight measures, but they're harmonically different (depends on the way they're interpreted, actually). Freddie had mostly the following ways to finish up his tracks (sometimes he combined two or more models): - Segue: Great King Rat, Masterstroke, Black Queen, Flick of the Wrist, Guide Me Home, Party, Ogre Battle. - Fade Out: Mad the Swine, Seven Seas of Rhye, Killer Queen, It's a Hard Life, The Miracle, How Can I Go On, Play the Game, Crazy Little Thing Called Love. - Re-Intro: Nevermore, Lily of the Valley, Don't Try So Hard, You Take My Breath Away, It's a Hard Life, Jealousy, Don't Stop Me Now, Was It All Worth It. - Abrupt: Stone Cold Crazy, In the Lap of the Gods, Bicycle Race, Jesus, I'm Going Slightly Mad, Death on Two Legs, A Winter's Tale, We Are the Champions. - Interrupted Cadence: My Fairy King, In the Lap of the Gods ... Revisited, Innuendo. - Tag: Seaside Rendezvous, Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon, Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy, Staying Power. - Previously Used Section: The Golden Boy, Barcelona, Princes of the Universe, Jealousy, Mustapha. - New Section (or Mini-), Perfect Cadence: Liar, Bo Rhap, Somebody to Love, Millionaire Waltz. |
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